Emergency medicine dataset pilot

Emergency medicine dataset pilot

NHS Digital in conjunction with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has used Xenplate on tablets to pilot the new proposed national Emergency Medicine Dataset (ECDS) with success.

This pilot was available in less than two weeks!

We describe below the steps involved in setting up the system.

On the success of Xenplate as a rapid deployment audit tool for the RCEM, NHS Digital, which is responsible for NHS IT governance and standards, commissioned Xenplate to use the pilot tool for the ECDS. It was possible to deploy a fully compliant system into a major NHS Trust Hospital within a few days of conception.

We received outline specification from NHS Digital for an Android tablet device to be used by NHS Digital supervised nurses to collect efficacy and user experience data on the new proposed national dataset ECDS for emergency medicine.

Through discussion with NHS Digital we confirmed that we thoroughly understood their application, the intended users and expected skill levels. We provided advice based on our extensive experience of working in the hospital environment. We wanted to ensure the highest probability of success given the workflow, and levels of staff expertise, leveraging our previous experience and expert knowledge of hospital infrastructure, governance and IT systems. We also guided NHS Digital in their negotiations with the individuals in the hospitals as this was all outside the experience of the particular NHS Digital team.

Within five days of the discussion, we produced a workflow and a live interactive website to let the NHS Digital team trial with a proposed model. A prototype was agreed and set live in two days, hosted by L2S2 on the NHS private network (HSCN / N3). The system was signed off in under one week.

L2S2 made direct contact with governance and IT in Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (Leeds TH) and secured formal written approval to conduct the trial using hospital staff and live data.

L2S2 prepared manuals, detailed instructions, set up the survey, programmed tablets and despatched them to NHS Digital in two days and the surveys were started in Leeds TH.

The trial proceeded without issue, the nurses found the system to be intuitive and immediately usable and NHS Digital had access to the data in real time.

ECDS has subsequently been rolled out to most major acute hospitals in England